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everyday feminism

What We’re Really Telling Fat People

Wouldn’t it be great if we acknowledged the full humanity of everyone, including fat people? While more people are bringing this very issue to the forefront, it’s still very common to shame and hyper-scrutinize fat people.

So common, in fact, that people who can have a big influence on our lives – like our doctors and politicians – are often the ones to make dehumanizing comments.

Here are some harmful messages we continue to send fat people, and one way out of this negative minefield. This is why the fat acceptance movement is a wonderful thing.

With Love, The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript

Panel 1

(A man with a TV for a head is pointing at a woman in an aqua shirt and a gray skirt. The woman, who is fat, looks sad.)

Panel 5

(The sad woman is now being spoken to by a female doctor, with a white doctor’s coat and hair in a bun, holding a clipboard. The doctor’s cheery expression is undercut by her harsh words.)

Doctor: I’m your doctor, and to tell you the truth, you disgust me.

Panel 6

(The sad woman, who still hasn’t moved, is now being faced by herself. Her doppelgänger looks angry, shaking a fist in the air.)

Doppelgänger: I’m your self-image, and I wanna puke every time I see a mirror.

Panel 7

(Another fat woman, with dark skin, glasses, and an orange sleeveless shirt, appears. She smiles as she speaks, spreading her arms in a welcoming manner. For the first time all cartoon, the main character’s expression changes, as she smiles back at the fat woman.)

Panel 8

(Final panel. The second fat woman looks surprised, and the main character looks annoyed, as all the other characters from panels 1-6 loom at the main character, glaring. TV Man is pointing angrily, and the Doctor is yelling a bit. Only the Doctor and TV Man speak, but the impression is that they’re speaking for the crowd.)

Barry Deutsch is the Portland-based author and cartoonist of Ampersand, a political comic with a generally progressive sensibility. A new Ampersand comic appears in every issue of Dollars and Sense Magazine. His current comics project is his comic book Hereville, a fantasy adventure comic about an eleven-year-old Jewish girl. Check out his blog and follow him on Twitter @barrydeutsch.